According to GCD, Abel also inked Star Wars Weekly #108's cover.

Looking at the GCD entry, that looks legit. I have it inked by Tony DeZuniga in my review of that issue. Thanks for the heads up, chaykinstevens

Speaking for myself, yes, I enjoyed both the ROTJ era and the post-ROTJ era a lot...up to a point. I say "up to a point" because, actually, I dropped the book in mid-1985 for two reasons; firstly, I wasn't really a big fan of Cynthia Martin's artwork when she came on board as regular artist, and secondly, the British comic was becoming full of reprints of older stories -- stories I already had in my collection from the first time they appeared -- with barely 4 pages of new content per issue, so it just wasn't great value for money anymore.

But, as for the quality of the stories/artwork in the post-ROTJ issues, up until Martin became the regular artist (issue #94), yes, I enjoyed it just as much as I'd enjoyed the earlier issues from between ESB and ROTJ, overall.

In terms of the wider comic buying public, actually, 1978 was the comic's biggest selling year and it had been in a slow but steady decline, sales-wise, since then. But it had always done more than respectable business and, even when it was cancelled in 1986, it was still selling around 100,000 copies a month, which was more than most of the second-tier superhero titles of the day.

I kind of felt the comics lost story momentum after the Empire adaptation. With Han frozen in carbonite, we were stuck for 2 years, while Lucas filmed the sequel. With Han mostly off the table (apart from flashbacks) we lost a major engine of the stories (though Archie always kept Luke at the center of things). Also, Archie pretty much wrapped up his run with the Empire adaptation (though he did a few issues here and there). I always felt Archie was the best Star Wars writer, with the possible exception of Allen Dean Foster. I stuck around until 50; but, that was about it.

Star Wars #92
Cover dated: February 1985
Issue title: The Dream
Script: Mary Jo Duffy
Artwork: Jan Duursema (pencils)/Tom Mandrake (inks)
Colours: Glynis Wein
Letters: Rick Parker
Cover art: Cynthia Martin (pencils)/Bill Sienkiewicz (paints)
Overall rating: 7 out of 10




Plot summary: Luke Skywalker is being tormented by vivid, Force-induced dreams, in which he sees his father, Darth Vader, preparing to remove his helmet. Following one of these dreams, a starfighter lands near the Alliance base on Endor, carrying a lone pilot who introduces himself as Prince Denin, last survivor of the royal family of Naldar. Denin petitions the Alliance to send ships to his homeworld, where many of the remaining Imperial forces are regrouping. He also requests that Luke train him as a Jedi, but Skywalker refuses, fearing potentially disastrous repercussions for the galaxy if his abilities as a teacher prove lacking.

Admiral Ackbar decides to send a reconnaissance force to the planet, made up of Luke, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca, R2-D2, C-3PO, and one of Luke's combat students named Barney. Before leaving Endor, Luke has another vivid dream, in which Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker reveal that the figure of Vader that he saw in his earlier dreams was a portent of a dark power on the rise.

After making an emergency landing on Naldar, the party search through the remains of a huge battleground and soon find themselves surrounded by Imperial stormtroopers. The troopers' armour-clad leader is Barney's old friend, Flint, who has turned to the Dark Side after studying as a pupil of Vader's. As Luke and Flint duel with lightsabers, Leia and the droids discover documentation revealing that Prince Denin actually died some years ago. When he is confronted about this, Denin admits the he is, in fact, Denin's twin sister, Vila, who took on her brother's identity after his death, in order to fulfil his wish to become a Jedi.

As Luke's comrades take on the Imperial troops, he and Flint's duel comes to a finish. Barney confronts his old friend, reminding him that it was the Empire who caused his mother's death, not the Rebellion, which prompts Flint to question his path to the Dark Side. A nearby stormtrooper hears the exchange and prepares to assassinate Flint, but before this can happen, Vila picks up Luke's lightsaber and rushes forward, striking the Imperial down as he fires a laser bolt into her. Flint finally realises the trouble that he has wrought and sets off a detonation device, annihilating the Imperial troops. As Vila dies in Luke's arms, she finds comfort in the fact that, at the end, she wielded a lightsaber and acted as a Jedi would. As she passes away into the mist-shrouded, ethereal domain of the Force, Vila finds her brother and Yoda waiting for her.


Comments: The story in Star Wars #92 is a sequel – or maybe "follow-up" is a better term – to "The Apprentice", which appeared in Star Wars Annual #3. Here we catch up with Flint, who joined up with Darth Vader and the Imperial forces at the end of that annual, and his friend, Barney, who threw in his lot with the Rebellion. Like Star Wars Annual #3, this is a double-sized issue and, given that it's not by the series' usual artistic team, I strongly suspect that this was originally intended to appear in a never-to-be-published fourth Star Wars annual.

I have to say that this is a much better story than "The Apprentice", with Jo Duffy turning in a really fantastic script. The story opens with the gang all back together on Endor for the first time since issue #81, and it seems that Luke Skywalker has taken on a group of new recruits for combat training, including Kiro, Rik Duel, Dani, Chihdo and Barney. Duffy also gives us a fascinating glimpse into Luke's current mindset, examining his unresolved feelings towards his father, along with his fear and insecurity over taking on new Jedi apprentices. I noted in my review of issue #90 that I thought that it was perfectly understandable for Luke to be hesitant about taking on pupils, but what's interesting about this story (and "The Apprentice") is that he sees how not taking on those who have ability with the Force, such as Flint, can also have its dangers.

The swirling, Force-created dreamscape that Luke visits in his sleep is also a pretty interesting concept and not without precedent in Marvel's Star Wars comic; we saw a very similar realm when Luke was laying ill with the Crimson Forever in issue #50. At one point, as Luke dreams, he is visited by the Force ghosts of Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker (standing next to Darth Vader, no less) – with the latter drawn to look like actor Sebastian Shaw, since this issue was published long before George Lucas saw fit to replace him with the spirit form of Hayden Christensen in the revamped version of Return of the Jedi. ...




This is significant because it is Anakin's only appearance in Marvel's original Star Wars series, since his face wasn't shown in the comic adaptation of Jedi.

We also learn that many of the rogue Imperial forces that we've heard about in recent issues are regrouping on the planet Naldar. Flint is leading these forces and is now the second pretender to Vader's throne that we've seen in the series, what with Lumiya appearing in issue #88. I must say that the way in which Duffy is showing us the scramble for power in the vacuum left by the Emperor and Vader's demise feels very believable.

Prince Denin's also a fairly interesting character, although he (she?) comes on like such an overly-entitled jackass when our heroes first meet him, that I'm surprised they wanted to help him at all. Ah well, I guess that's why they're heroes though, right? The secret about Denin actually being Vila, the dead prince's sister, is a nice touch too and the clues that Duffy plants in the lead up to the big reveal are subtle and clever.

On a slightly negative note, there are two or three small, nitpicky things that bug me in this issue. Firstly, how does Denin know that Master Yoda taught Luke? That probably wouldn't have been common knowledge outside of Luke's immediate circle of friends, so how could Denin, from the far off world of Naldar, know about it? Secondly, Luke's lighsaber is incorrectly coloured blue/white in this issue, rather than green (although it is correct on the front cover); and thirdly, the interior layout of the Millennium Falcon is all wrong, with the ship's cockpit visible from the recreational area. We had the Falcon depicted like this in the adaptation of the first film, but back in those early issues of the series, the error was much more understandable, since Star Wars was still such a new thing. There really is no excuse for it at this point in the series.

As for the artwork, the first thing that I want to mention is the wonderfully surreal front cover by Cynthia Martin and Bill Sienkiewicz, which is gorgeous and striking. Martin went on to become the regular artist for Star Wars (beginning with issue #94), but this cover is notable for being her very first contribution to the series.

The interior artwork is handled by the husband and wife team of Jan Duursema and Tom Mandrake. Duursema' name may well be familiar to Star Wars comic fans because, in the 2000s, she became something of a fan favourite, writing Dark Horse Comic's Star Wars: Republic and Star Wars: Legacy titles, as well as illustrating the comic adaptation of Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. This is her one and only contribution to Marvel's Star Wars series though, as well as her first time working on a Star Wars story.

While the art isn't exactly to my tastes – being rather "chunky", with slightly wonky anatomy in places, and not as photo-realistic as Tom Palmer's work on the series – it is still pretty nice. There's a pleasing clarity and precision of line that I quite like. I also like the heavy shadow work that Mandrake employs in his inks, and the action sequences are excellent, particularly the lightsaber duel between Luke and Flint...




Speaking to Abel G. Peña on starwars.com in 2002, Duursema recalled how she came to work on the issue: "Being such a big fan, I could not have passed up the opportunity to work on Star Wars when it was offered! I was working on another project at the time, but worked overtime to be able to draw the Star Wars issue as well." In the same interview, Duursema explained how she and Duffy arrived at the design for Flint's armour: "Flint's character was sort of an analogy for Luke... sort of a, 'What if Luke had gone to the dark side?' kind of story. Flint was a cool character to design. Jo Duffy and I both liked the samurai influences on Vader's costume, and wanted to hint at that, but we both really wanted to pull in something stylistically unique to Flint. So I researched Far Eastern armor, as well as medieval armor, and tried to come up with a blend for Flint's costume. Lucasfilm was really open to interpretation of design for this character."

While I can certainly see the influence of medieval plate amour in Flint's design, the samurai influences are somewhat harder to identify – at least to my eyes. Your opinion may differ though...




Overall, this is a very good issue, which delivers a compelling conclusion to the earlier, and frankly inferior, story, "The Apprentice", while also providing more fascinating glimpses into Luke's attitude towards taking on Jedi pupils. In addition, we get our strongest example so far of just what a problem the remnants of the Imperial forces can be to the newly born Alliance of Free Planets. The art is good, though not 100% to my tastes, and the dream-like realm of the Force that we visit at various points gives, what would otherwise have been a fairly pedestrian slice of space opera, a much more surrealistic edge.


Continuity issues:

• Luke Skywalker's lighsaber is incorrectly coloured blue/white, instead of green
• The interior layout of the Millennium Falcon is wrong, with the cockpit appearing to directly adjoining the recreational lounge area.

Favourite panel:


Favourite quote: "Do you think he never mentioned you to me... ? He told me that his greatest challenge was to come on the day that he faced you! He told me all that. And when my master died, and the Emperor with him, everyone knew who'd killed him -- his great enemy, you … Luke Skywalker!" – Flint gives Luke Skywalker his warped and decidedly inaccurate version of the events leading up to the death of Darth Vader and the Emperor.

That would make sense that #92 may indeed have originally been planned as Annual #4 for 1984 or 85, I hadn't thought of that before. I did think maybe that because this issue, as well as #100, were double-sized, might have kept Marvel from making #107 double-sized as well or maybe not. But I think I read that the decision to cancel happened rather abruptly while 107 was being written.

Also, I absolutely loved the entire last page and Yoda's cameo.

I agree this was a fun issue, even if I am not quite as fond of it as you are Confessor - I guess my love of the Expanded Universe makes the idea the Empire collapsed completely literally overnight a bit much to take. I agree with you about the Boba Fett being mistaken for a droid thing being out there - the same Jawas who wander about Mos Eisley and must see hundreds of different species can't tell the difference between a man in a helmet and a machine? Still that being said the issue is a lot of fun and that is an amazing cover!

Oh and regarding Han's docking fees that subplot was used again in the Star Wars roleplaying game (the West End Games version.) Galaxy Guide 7: Mos Eisley identifies the owners of the docking as an unlucky Duro couple who got into trouble with their payments to Jabba thanks to Han's thoughtlessness!